So a couple of years ago in my video production class, I was asked to make a movie trailer. I couldn't think of an existing movie I wanted to make a trailer for, so I decided to make one up on the spot. Lo behold:
I thought it was a pretty cool concept, so I thought maybe I'd do that thing where I actually write it! The plot, if you didn't get it from that trailer, is basically this: there are these guardian angels, holy beings tasked with watching over the people of their world and keeping them safe. However, there are certain rules the angels must obey, in order to keep them from abusing their power. One angel, by the name of Rafael, breaks these rules, and finds himself cast into the mortal world, lost and confused in the busy streets of some busy city I currently have down as New York but may be subject to change. He runs into a mortal woman named Sherry, who helps him on his way as he seeks redemption in order to return home.
It's bound to be a little cheesy and YA, but whatever, should be fun \ o /
One day in and already dreading this novel, yaaay :'D The plot feels awkward and wrong and I'm not really sure how I plan to end this trainwreck. But I don't have any other ideas so maybe it can be salvaged? Maybe I'll end up ditching this and trying something else? Flailing?
It definitely feels weird placing it in the real world since it's clearly not, but then I need fictional place names and I have none. Placeholder names ho!
Just as I'm starting to like this novel again, I get a cold and it kills my productivity all over! Yaaaay \ o / At least I made it to 10k, whoo. Just 40 more k to go, yo.
And now that we've made that milestone, here's my traditional "special wordcount words" thing!
10k: date 20k: asked 30k: Rafael 40k: high 50k: Would
So on Skype, Killix was suggesting random scene changes within people's novels to entirely different stories, and I was talking about doing it via the characters watching television because it segued well enough into the plot. Well uh, I did. >_> I am writing waaay more of my spontaneous fake television plot than I have to, but whatever!
"So, Raf," Sherry said, once they had finished breakfast and put their dirty dishes into the dishwasher. She paused momentarily before adding, "Can I call you Raf?"
Rafael blinked. "I... suppose so."
"All right then, Raf, do you have anything important to do today?" Sherry asked.
"I... don't know," Rafael admitted.
Sherry raised an eyebrow at this. "You don't know?"
"I have something that I need to do, but... I'm still not certain how to do it," Rafael explained carefully. "And I'm not sure where to begin."
"Huh. Sounds deep," was Sherry's response to this. She made no further comment, however, simply continuing with what was presumably her original question. "Anyway, I don't have anything to do today, myself. Maybe you'd like to take a break from that and watch some TV with me?"
"Er..." Rafael looked up at Sherry's expectant face, her eager grin plastered all over it. He didn't feel right just sitting around and doing nothing toward finding the path of redemption, but at the same time, she had a point. As it was, he was just stressing himself out by wondering about it with no clues. Maybe sitting back and relaxing for a while would actually be a good way to clear his mind and help him think better. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."
"Great! Because I really want to see the new episode of Forgotten Detective," Sherry told him, already on her way back to the living room and the television. "It's a mystery show about a man name Ricard T. Woodsman, a criminal investigator who forgot he was a criminal investigator, and he has to rediscover his identity all while solving mysteries and fighting crime."
"I... see." Rafael blinked. "Sounds interesting."
"It's super good. Come on! The new episode should be out today." Sherry grinned, beckoning Rafael to follow her just before disappearing into the other room.
Rafael shrugged, pushing himself out of his seat and following after her. By the time he got into the living room, Sherry had already seated herself on the couch, booting up her favorite online streaming service via a special device that was connected to the television. She scrolled through her list of favorited shows until she found the one she wanted—Forgotten Detective. Again, she beckoned Rafael over, patting the couch cushion beside her. Rafael took the invitation, slowly wandering over to the couch and sitting down on it. Once they were both comfortably situated, Sherry clicked into the latest episode and hit play.
---
Ricard T. Woodsman was sitting in his office, staring at the picture of his deceased wife sitting on his desk. She was such a beautiful woman, and he could tell from the picture that she was very kind. He felt great sorrow, however, knowing that he could not remember her voice, her touch, or any of the time they spent together first-hand. Ricard T. Woodsman was a detective, a criminal investigator of great renown throughout the world, but a terrible accident had claimed most of his memory, leaving it in shattered fragments that he struggled to piece together. After all, of all the mysteries Detective Woodsman tried to solve, none of them eluded him more than the mystery of himself.
While he was pondering this, his quirky sidekick Gary Reynolds pushed open the door, carrying a box full of documents. "Man, that was some office party!" he remarked, with a big grin on his face. "Dan started up this intense game of chair soccer, and it was intense."
"Was it really?" Detective Woodsman replied, raising an amused eyebrow. "Did you play, Gary?"
"Yeah, but I lost in the first round," Gary admitted, his expression turning decidedly more sheepish for a moment. "But man, was it a thrill to watch! Xander was totally killing it, but then John swooped in and stole the ball at the very last second!" Gary laughed as he recalled the tale. "I tell ya, boss, you really missed out."
"I'm sorry I couldn't come. I had work to do," Detective Woodsman replied, setting aside the photograph of his wife so he could gesture to the pile of documents already stacked up on his desk. Glancing at the box his partner was carrying, he added, "And it looks like the work is never truly done."
"Right. These are the records you asked for," Gary said, plopping the box down on the desk with a huff. "There sure are a lot of them, You sure you want to read through all of them?"
"When you're trying to find the missing pieces of a case, even if that case is your own mind, you take every lead you can get," Detective Woodsman explained, pulling out a document from the box and taking a better look at it. It was one of his old case files, with his name written on it in bold print at the top. He gingerly dusted off the cover before flipping it open, peering inside. "It's the only way you can collect all the pieces, and discover the truth."
"Spoken like a true professional," Gary replied with a pleased smile. He had always been a big fan of the famous Ricard T. Woodsman, and was excited to be able to get the chance to work with him... even if his memory wasn't entirely in order. But Gary, as faithful of a sidekick as he was, was always happy to help the amnesiac detective however he could, whether it was solving a case or helping him rediscover himself. Adjusting his glasses, he gestured to the case file that Ricard was holding, he continued, "That was a really good one. Everyone was talking about that missing emerald, and you were able to track down the guy who stole it. It was all over the news for months."
"Heh. It all sounds so impressive," Detective Woodsman replied, skimming through the file with a halfhearted smile. "But I still have trouble believing this guy is me, you know?"
"Don't worry, sir. You'll have it all figured out in no time," Gary assured him.
"Thanks," Woodsman said. "I sure hope so."
A pause. And then, Gary coughed. "So anyway, I think there's still a bunch of cookies left over from the party. I think I'm going to see if I can grab some macadamia nut ones before Xander steals them all again."
"Good luck with that, Gary," Woodsman replied with an amused smile. Before Gary could leave the room, however, Ricard called after him, "Though if you wanted to be a good assistant, you might think about bringing some back to your boss."
"I'm on it, boss-man!" Gary gave a fake salute, before hurrying off to the break room.
No sooner had Gary faded out of sight than did the phone on Detective Woodsman's desk start to ring. Woodsman sighed, setting aside the document he was looking at and picking up the phone instead. "Detective Woodsman."
He listened to the voice on the other side for a moment, his smile quickly fading as he realized what it was about. Someone was calling about a suspected homicide, and they needed him to come and investigate. Woodsman quickly accepted the case, before hanging up the phone and standing up, heading out of his office and following after his assistant.
"Looks like we're going to have to hold off on those cookies," Detective Woodsman said, once he had caught up with Gary. "We've got work to do."
I'd say "can this just be my story instead," but given that the plot is even less fleshed out than my main one, that would probably be a bad idea lol. That and the hype will probably last just about long enough to carry me to the part that advances the plot. Them watching TV is totally going to advance the plot, yo
My plot is going in unexpected directions, whoaaaa
Well, while trying to sort out what I'm doing with my plot (I still don't know 8D), I finally went back and added more to the intro like I wanted to, retconning a new character into existence. The intro's still a lot more "information textwall" and not "establishing character moments" like I'd like it to be, but it's definitely better. I might go back and add more stuff next time I'm inspired, lol.
After three weeks of struggling to keep up, suddenly I hit plot and am almost a full day ahead of schedule? What is even happening??
The weird part is I'm at the part of the plot that I've kind of been debating over and feeling super unsure of since I first came up with it, but now suddenly it's just all coming all at once. WHAT IS LIFE
A few minutes later, she emerged from the hallway, dressed in a bathrobe and her hair rolled into a towel to dry. She paused as she passed by the couch, smiling when she saw Rafael sitting there. "Oh, good morning! How did you sleep?"
"I slept well, actually, thank you," Rafael replied, returning her smile with a polite nod. "And what of yourself?"
"I slept like a log. Had some pretty weird dreams, though," Sherry replied, heading into the kitchen to fetch some breakfast. "Like this one dream, I was running a marathon, but I kept getting super lost. I think I ended up in some kind of shopping complex somehow, and there were so many bathrooms. You know how it is in dreams."
"Er." Rafael blinked at the retelling, not quite sure what to make of it. "I can't say I do, honestly. ...Though I think I dreamt something about a mountain of cheese last night."
Sherry chuckled at this. "I hope you at least got to eat the cheese."
"I'm afraid not. We never actually reached the mountain."
"Bummer." Sherry walked into the kitchen, opening a cupboard and peering into it, pondering to herself what she wanted to eat for breakfast that morning. Catching a glimpse of a calendar beside the cupboard, however, she sighed. "Ugh, I have to go back to work tomorrow, don't I?"
"Work?" Rafael raised an eyebrow. This was the first he'd heard of Sherry's job. "Where do you work?"
"Oh, I work as an assistant teacher at North Park High School," Sherry replied, pulling a box of cereal out of the cupboard and closing it behind her. "So basically I get to babysit a bunch of teens all week. Sounds super fun, right?" She stuck her tongue out, indicating that she was being sarcastic. "And it's the full school session, too. Every weekday, from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon."
"I... see," Rafael said, not entirely sure how to respond to that. He wished to offer his sympathies, but given his own work schedule, coupled with his still uncertain sense of time, he had a hard time judging what was considered to be a long time. After a moment, he decided simply on, "I'm sorry to hear that, I suppose."
"Heh." Sherry gave an amused smile, but then paused in front of a cupboard full of dishes in thought. "Come to think of it, I'm not sure what you're going to do while I'm gone... hm."
"I didn't think of that," Rafael admitted, also pausing in thought. "I don't suppose I could come to your workplace with you..."
"I'm pretty sure bringing a grown homeless man to a school full of teenagers would be frowned upon, sorry," Sherry replied with an amused note to her voice, making it clear that she was once again trying to make a joke. "And I doubt they'd believe me if I said 'it's okay, he's an angel.'"
Rafael gave a small smile at the joke. "I suppose you're right. It probably wouldn't be proper for me to sit in on classes, for that matter, so I'm not certain what I would do there."
"Probably not, no." Sherry pulled a bowl out of the cupboard, and a spoon out of the drawer directly beneath it. "And we can't exactly get you a job on such short notice, so you'd probably just have to stay here?" She frowned, adding, "Would you, um... would you know what to do, being left home alone?"
"Well, I'm sure I could find ways to spend my time," Rafael said, "if that's what you mean."
"I guess, but you'll need to, uh, eat, and stuff," Sherry replied. "I'm guessing you don't know how to cook?"
"...I do not," Rafael admitted. "I... suppose that could be a problem."
"It's a problem we're going to fix right now. Get in here," Sherry insisted, waving him into the kitchen. Rafael blinked, surprised by the sudden request, but nonetheless climbed off the couch and wandered into the kitchen. Once there, Sherry gestured to the bowl of cereal she was preparing. "See this? It's a bowl of cereal. It's basically the easiest breakfast to make in the world, no stoves required."
"All right," Rafael replied, blinking as he looked as the bowl. "It looks like you just poured the cereal into a bowl?"
"Pretty much. I mean, you could eat it plain if you like, but most people eat it with milk." Sherry demonstrated this by pulling a jug of milk out of the refrigerator, then proceeded to pour it into the bowl with the cereal. "The ideal is to get about an even amount of cereal and milk, like this."
"I... see." Rafael carefully watched Sherry pour the milk, trying to get a sense for what she meant by 'an even amount of cereal of milk.'
"And there you go! There's a bowl of cereal," Sherry finished, proudly presenting her finished bowl of cereal. She set the milk aside so she could pick up the bowl, shoveling a spoonful of cereal into her mouth triumphantly. She paused to chew for a bit, then continued. "You want to try it?"
"All right, I can try," Rafael agreed. If he was going to learn to live on his own, he may as well start now. He was grateful that Sherry had yet to put the required ingredients away, though he realized that he would probably have to memorize the locations of the items later. Though there was one crucial item that he would have to get for himself... where did Sherry keep the bowls, again?
"Bowls are over there," Sherry said, pointing to the cupboard in question, apparently reading his expression and guessing what he was thinking.
"Right. Thank you." Rafael smiled sheepishly, moving to the indicated cupboard and opening it carefully.
Following Sherry's lead, he pulled a single bowl out of a stack of them, then reached into the drawer below and pulled out a single spoon. He brought the two of them to the table where the cereal and milk were still sitting out for him. He carefully opened up the box of cereal, noticing that there was a simple plastic bag on the inside holding all of the actual cereal. He also noticed that the bag had only been opened on one side—seemingly the boxes were purchased with the bags sealed, likely to keep the food fresh—so he made sure to pour the cereal out from that side. Once the bowl was sufficiently full, he set the box aside, reaching for the milk. This was going to be the tricky part, pouring just the right of milk so that it was an even ratio. He carefully started pouring into the bowl, watching for what looked to be the right amount. When he could see the amount of milk resembling the amount that Sherry had poured into her bowl, he stopped, setting the milk carton aside.
"Does that look about right?" he asked.
"It's perfect," Sherry assured him. Gesturing to the milk carton, she added, "Make sure to put the lid on that and put it back in the fridge. The cereal can sit out for a bit, but milk spoils if it sits out for too long."
"Right, of course." Rafael nodded, picking up the small blue screw-on cap and carefully screwing it back onto the milk carton—it took him a couple of tries to determine which was the right way to turn it, but he figured it out quickly. Once done with that, he picked up the milk carton by the handle, bringing it back to the refrigerator and opening the door with his free hand.
"Milk goes there," Sherry told him, gesturing to the spot in question. Rafael took note of this, trying to place the milk back in the indicated spot. When he was done, Sherry nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, right there. Perfect."
Rafael breathed a sigh of relief, closing the refrigerator door behind him and returning to his bowl of cereal. "You were right, that was pretty easy."
"It's like you're a natural!" Sherry replied with a grin.
Rafael chuckled, once again following Sherry's lead and carefully picking up the bowl of cereal with one hand, taking care not to let it spill, and taking hold of the spoon and scooping out some of the cereal with his other hand. He put the spoonful of cereal into his mouth, pausing to chew it and sample the flavor for a while, before finally swallowing it down. "Interesting flavor. Very... sweet?"
"Heh, yeah." Sherry gestured to the cabinet which she had pulled the box of cereal out of. "There's lots of different cereals in all sorts of different flavors, so you can try some of the other kinds if you like. This just happens to be one of my favorites." She gave a teasing grin, adding, "And also happens to be full of sugar."
"I see. I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Rafael replied with an amused smile.
"Great. Now come lunchtime, I'll show you how to make a killer sandwich."
(overly descriptive paragraph of pouring milk into a bowl ftw)
Looking back on this novel, I feel like this is another one of those cool-sounding concepts that I don't think I'm good enough of a writer to make it quite what I was hoping for it to be. XD I yolo'd through most of the plot and probably spent half of the time with Rafael and Sherry recapping every plot development just to pad the length. Definitely going to need to fix the pacing if/when I get around to editing this one. But eh, at least I didn't have to resort to having Missingno show up a la 2008, so it could have been worse.
I still have one more scene I want to write, which I'll probably get to later today, but for now, CELEBRATION TIME YEAH WHOO
